‘TUF: Brazil 3’ Recap: Episode 2

The elimination round of “The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil” Season 3
wraps up tonight as 16 fighters vie for eight remaining spots on
the rosters of coaches Wanderlei
Silva and Chael
Sonnen.

First into the cage is heavyweight Richardson
Moreira, a Team Nogueira fighter also known as “Rick Monstro,”
who goes up against Rio de Janeiro’s Alexandre
Machado, a.k.a. “Bebezao.” Moreira connects with his first
punch, a whipping right hand, and follows up with three or four
more as Machado stumbles backward. After failing to trip Machado to
the ground, Moreira holds an underhook with his left arm and socks
Machado in the face with massive right hands, knocking him out
cold. Both coaches seem impressed with the victory and praise
Moreira’s aggressiveness.

Middleweight Markus
Perez Echeimberg admits to being “a bit of a nerd” in his intro
but says that playing video games helps him strategize in fights.
His opponent, Guilherme
Vasconcelos, is a decorated jiu-jitsu player, so it’s
unsurprising when Vasconcelos shoots for a double-leg takedown in
the opening 10 seconds. Echeimberg defends and lands a toss of his
own but winds up on the bottom after a scramble. When Echeimberg
tries to buck out, “Bomba” explodes to take back mount and applies
a fight-ending rear-naked choke.

In a matchup of heavyweights with big-show experience, onetime
Strikeforce signee Marcos
Rogerio de Lima is up against ex-Bellator competitor Thiago
Santos. “Big Monster” takes the fight to the fence, working on
a single-leg and leaving his neck exposed in the process. Marcos
“Pezao” jumps guard with a tight guillotine that forces Santos to
tap -- and then go to sleep -- in less than one minute.

Pedro
Paulino, a 29-year-old medical student from Mato Grosso do Sul,
takes on Ismael de
Jesus of Goias in the next middleweight tilt. Paulino stuffs a
front kick and does a little dance before charging in to shove
“Marmota” against the cage. De Jesus trips Paulino to the ground
and works his way back up, and the fighters resume striking for a
few seconds before Paulino notices that the ring finger on his
right hand was broken in his fall to the ground. The doctor is
called in and the fight is immediately halted, giving de Jesus the
win via TKO.

“If it were me, I’d put my finger in place and go on,” says
Wanderlei. “You’ve got nine other fingers!”

Highlights are shown of a fight between another Team Nogueira
heavyweight, Antonio
Paulo Branjao, and Brazilian Top Team representative Fernando
Camoles Ribas. The fight “turns into a grappling match right
away,” according to Sonnen, with Camoles coming out on top in round
one. Branjao takes control in the second stanza, however, hurting
Camoles with a hard takedown by and finishing with punches from
full mount.

The coaches don’t see eye-to-eye on the next middleweight fight:
Wanderlei believes the first two rounds were won by Wendell
Oliveira Marques, while Sonnen says the decision should go to
Warlley
Alves. The judges side with neither, and the upsized
welterweights must fight a third round. This time, both coaches and
two of three judges agree that the decision should go to Andrade,
who is shown landing spinning kicks and drilling Marques with hard
right hands. Sonnen says his assistant coaches have pegged the
unbeaten X-Gym product as one to watch this season.

The final heavyweight eliminator is between Bruno “Blindado”
Silva and Vitor
Miranda. Both fighters are missing loved ones -- Silva’s late
father, and Miranda’s son, who tragically drowned in 2011 -- and
both cite family as the major motivation for their fight.
Highlights show Miranda lighting up Silva with combinations of
punches and leg kicks, but Blindado stands his ground and continues
to throw back under heavy fire. In round two, Miranda breaks out of
a clinch and lands a nasty high kick, shin-to-neck, that puts Silva
down for the count. Despite the loss, Wanderlei says Blindado’s
toughness should earn him a chance as a possible substitute this
season.

The 16 winning fighters line up as coaches Silva and Sonnen prepare
to pick their teams, but what looks to be a relatively civil
ceremony turns animated when “The Axe Murderer” threatens to quit
the show unless Sonnen apologize for his past disparaging remarks
about Brazil.

“I accept your surrender,” Sonnen teases. “I’m prepared to get all
these gentlemen to the UFC, and I’m willing to do it without you,
so I accept. Please, step aside.”

Sonnen, naturally, refuses to apologize, and Silva storms out of
the gym cursing a blue streak. Team Silva assistant coach Isabel
Salgado tells the former Pride star not to neglect the fighters who
have struggled to make it on the show and are now sitting around,
waiting for an end to the stalemate. Sonnen argues that he already
paid for his comments about Brazil by taking a beating in his
second fight against Anderson
Silva. This does not please Wanderlei, who exits the gym at
episode’s end without picking teams.